Big Jet Plane
by Acepilot6
Summary: Courtney Gripling always gets what she wants. But, after you get what you want, what exactly are you meant to do with it? Inspired by the song of the same name. Reviews appreciated.


_**For best effect, play the song this fic shares its name with in the background. You can find it on Youtube.**_

**Big Jet Plane**  
Acepilot

8 - * - * - 8

New England in the summer. It was a sensation she'd missed for so long, having spent her summers flitting around the tropics and wherever it was trendy that year.

The feeling of the grass tickling her skin, the smell of the perfume coming from the flowers that all-but coated the fields. She could hear birds and her breathing and whispers that could have been words but might just have been breaths of wind.

She felt a pair of fingers walk their way along the bare skin of her arm, and she wondered, when all was said and done, what she was meant to do now.

"I don't want to inflate your ego any more than it already is, but that was...special."

Courtney felt a smile grace her lips as she rolled over on the blanket to face Ginger. "Did you expect anything less?"

Ginger laughed and slid in closer to her, tucking herself in against Courtney's body and sighing against the other girl, pressing her lips softly to her collarbone. "This wasn't exactly what I was expecting when you asked if I wanted to have lunch," she admitted. "But I'm not exactly complaining."

Courtney just smiled and lay on the blanket, staring at the sky and stroking her fingers idly against Ginger's skin. It wasn't exactly what she had been expecting, either. She had spent years contemplating this moment. Only she hadn't. She had spent years contemplating the moments just past, technically.

She had spent years thinking about what it would be like to be with Ginger, to actually make that leap. Ever since freshman year of high school. Or even, if she was completely honest with herself, since junior high, when her obsession with the other girl began.

So, now she had done it. She had fulfilled her greatest desire, gained what she coveted most.

She had Ginger.

So, now what?

"What do we do now?" she vocalised at last, more to herself than Ginger. But it was Ginger who offered the first answer.

"I'm thinking we get dressed," Ginger suggested. "As...nice as this is, I think the longer we stay out here the more we're pushing our luck."

It wasn't exactly what she had meant, but it wasn't exaclty the worst suggestion, either. As much as she never wanted this afternoon to end, she was sure that the longer they spent here, under the tree, basking in their afterglow, the greater the chances were someone was going to stumble across them. It was too beautiful a day for there to be no-one out walking, and sooner or later they'd cross paths with two surprisingly relaxed young women leaving nothing to the imagination.

It hadn't exactly been the direction that Courtney had intended for this little picnic. But, as so often happens, one thing leads to another...

Ginger rose from her reclining position and started gathering up their clothes. Courtney allowed herself to stare, unabashedly, at this other girl who she had so often tried to give up on. Years of a misunderstood obsession had led into years of pining, accompanied by therapy, confusion and unhappiness which had all finally led to this. A simple lunch on a summer afternoon that had become the most welcome therapy of her life.

But what did she do now?

Courtney had enjoyed the friendship of many throughout her life but she often felt they were shallow, superficial things, linked only by shared interests in things that, really, didn't matter all that much. Ginger had been the first friend she'd made that hadn't been made because of her fashion sense or social standing, no, she had made Ginger her friend because Ginger was the kind of person she actually wanted to be friends with. Over the years she had developed closer bonds with Darren, Macie, and even her friendship with Miranda had become something much more...real as they'd grown up and out of their admittedly brattish beginnings.

Courtney was never quite as good at sharing her affection as Ginger was. Where Ginger made her feel wonderful with a smile and a kind word, Courtney felt she had never quite mastered that. She often tried to make up for it by trying to help people she cared about. She had more than she could use of everything, and those she cared about often found themselves the beneficiaries of some pretty odd extravagances.

Throughout their whole friendship, she had tried to make Ginger's life better.

But it never quite seemed to work.

She had tried to raise Ginger's social standing, but she ultimately wasn't interested in being more popular. She had tried to help the other girl with money but she had always been politely refused. She had tried to help her with boys but Ginger had always, perhaps, understood better what she wanted from a significant other. And at the time when Courtney was still sufficiently in denial to try and set Ginger up, they were clearly looking at boys through completely different eyes.

Ginger turned to hand her her clothes and blushed profusely. "Were you looking at me?"

"Yes," Courtney told her.

Ginger looked as if she wanted to say something to this, but clearly couldn't find the right words. She settled for simply smiling, somewhat embarassed but clearly trying not to be, as the two young women dressed in the bright sunshine.

Ginger had changed her life in a million different ways - had taught her so much about life and friendship. She wanted so badly to do as much for Ginger as the other girl had done for her. But she didn't know how.

She would have bought her diamonds and pearls. She would have taken her to the most special places she knew in the world - to places in Europe that Ginger would find beautiful, to places in Asia that she would find beautiful, to places in Australia that she would find inspiring. She would have bought her her own newspaper to edit, she would have given her a mansion, she would have hung the moon.

But Ginger wasn't one to be impressed by trinkets or vacations or gifts or houses.

So what was it that she could offer her?

Courtney picked up one of the daisy chains that Ginger had been constructing before they became so...distracted. It was almost like a relic of a different age - like the world would be split between Before Then and After Now, and this was definitely from before. Ginger had made two of them but the other one had been inadvertantly crushed.

"What do you want to do now?" Courtney asked her.

"I don't know," Ginger told her. "I told Mom I'd be home for dinner. You can come around, if you like?"

"Are you going to tell her?"

"About us?"

Courtney nodded.

"Yes, I am." Ginger paused. "Maybe not straight away, though. I think I just need time to...come to terms with this. That it's...real."

Courtney nodded again, leaning down and kissing the redhead soundly. She didn't care much who knew about them. Her popularity was assured because she was Courtney Gripling, and if she said being gay was cool then who was anyone to argue? Miranda would give them a degree of grief but they had both weathered worse and she ultimately didn't care. She had Ginger.

"Do you want to go to Paris?" she asked.

Ginger looked confused. "It's a bit far for dinner."

Courtney laughed, beginning to fold up the blanket so they could tuck it into the picnic basket she'd brought along. "Not for dinner, silly. Just...sometime."

Ginger still clearly wasn't getting it, but shrugged and nodded anyway. "I guess so," she told the blonde. "Someday."

All the gifts she had to offer, Courtney suddenly realised with a start, meant nothing to Gigner. She couldn't impress the girl with her money or what it could buy.

And she wasn't quite sure what that left.

Could it be that Ginger actually liked her - loved her - for what she was - the person she was underneath, and not the name she'd inherited along with her money?

Ginger slipped her hand into hers. "Do you want to walk?"

Courtney shrugged. "I think so," she told Ginger. "It's a lovely day."

Ginger smiled at her broadly and kissed her quickly. "Yes, it is."

She didn't think she'd ever quite be able to be the kind of person Ginger was - so able to share that emotion and attraction between them, that it came out in these little, almost unconcious ways - the squeeze of the hand that held hers, that little peck between them, the little glinting smile in her eyes that was just for her.

But maybe, just maybe, she could. Ginger said she loved her, and she didn't think she would lie about such a thing. So maybe there was something about her that told Ginger she loved her in return, something she wasn't even herself aware of.

"Ginger," she began.

"Yes?" the redhead looked at her, quizzically.

"...never mind."

Ginger pulled them both to a halt. "Courtney...don't be like that. If there's something you want to say to me, please...say it."

Courtney sighed. "I just wanted to know...what can I do to make you...happy."

Ginger stared at her for a moment, the gears in her mind working in overdrive, before leaning in on her, pressing her lifts softly to her cheeks, and telling her, "You'll do," before wrapping her arms around her tightly for a second and skipping off ahead of her, whistling.

Courtney, stunned at the sudden movement, stared after her for a moment, before smiling and dashing to catch up.

As they walked away through the field, the orange of sunset starting to cross over where they had spent the afternoon, she smiled at Ginger, who squeezed her hand in return. It didn't matter, really, what it was they saw in each other. It probably wasn't what they saw in themselves. Just so long as it was there, and between them, that was all that mattered.

She placed the daisy chain on top of Ginger's head, like a princess' crown.

8 - * - * - 8

Author's Note:

So I started watching As Told By Ginger, and not before time. This fic was written after I'd watched the first 20-or-so-episodes, and so is based on the characterisations up to that point. I have been told this fic does not obey canon against the rest of the series, but it's very much a piece based on what I felt at the time I got the inspiration.

At any rate, the couple that hit me as the obvious one right off the bat was Courtney/Ginger. While Ginger/Darren are obviously the official couple, I found the C/G dynamic much more interesting and with much more potential. Courtney's behaviour plays pretty close to a schoolgirl crush, I think.

The main inspiration was the Angus and Julia Stone song "Big Jet Plane", obviously. The story about meeting the girl in the wilderness while hitchhiking inspired the outdoor setting, and the guitar riff/string section combination seemed to suggest an afterglow - specifically fingers running up a spine - to me. The lyrics inspired Courtney's worries about being unable to make Ginger happy.

Basically, this grew out of all those inspirations. Hopefully this won't be quite the end for me with this fandom. I'll see what comes to me next as I continue to work my way through the series.

As ever, any thoughts, criticism or ideas, please drop a review or a line.

Acepilot 21/02/11


End file.
